A Russian judge has found jailed ex-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky guilty of laundering stolen oil funds, a key charge in the second trial against the former head of oil major Yukos.
Once Russia's richest man, Mr Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev were also found guilty of stealing oil from the now defunct Yukos.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky defence team intends to appeal the jailed tycoon's conviction in what is thought to be a politically motivated second trial on embezzlement and money laundering charges.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky was found guilty of money laundering and embezzlement, news agency Interfax reported.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky's lead defence lawyer told Reuters he would appeal against the verdict, which government critics say suggests long-standing Kremlin promises to reform a court system marred by corruption and political influence are insincere.
Prosecutors are seeking an additional six-year prison term for the former Yukos oil company CEO but it could take judge Viktor Danilkin days to read what lawyers said was a 250-page verdict.
Mr Khodorkovsky is in the last year of an eight-year sentence imposed in 2005 after a politically charged fraud and tax evasion trial that shaped Vladimir Putin's 2000-2008 presidency.
Now prime minister but the dominant figure in Russia's ruling tandem with President Dmitry Medvedev, Mr Putin this month said Khodorkovsky had blood on his hands and that 'a thief must be in jail'.
Khodorkovsky's lawyers said the comments in a 16 December television appearance were designed to exert influence in the case, which has accentuated a sense of personal rivalry between Putin and a business mogul who was once Russia's richest man.
'What we are hearing leaves us no doubt that pressure was put on the court - that the court was not free when adopting this decision,' lead defence lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant said during a brief break in Danilkin's rushed verdict reading.
Dimitry Medvedev signalled disapproval of Prime Minister Putin's comments, saying in a nationally televised interview on Friday that no official had the right to comment before a verdict was reached.
Mr Putin said later he was referring to Khodorkovsky's first conviction.
The current trial has been closely watched in Russia and abroad ahead of a 2012 presidential election that could put Vladimir Putin back in the Kremlin.
